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Thursday, July 18, 2013

The true story behind the movie The Conjuring (videos)

James Wan’s latest foray into the haunted house genre leads him straight into The Conjuring
which is “based on a true story” about the Perron family who were
terrorized by demonic entities in which ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine
Warren were called upon to investigate. We see this very often —
especially with horror films — because adding the tag “based on a true”
story to your credits instantly grabs everyone’s attention. And it
should. Many movies are based on some truth and when it comes to
something that looks as terrifying as Wan’s The Conjuring then we want to dig deeper into the events which inspired it.

The just recently dug up true story about The Possession
which was produced by Sam Raimi about the famous dibbuk box that held a
malicious ancient spirit inside that did horrible things to each of its
owners. That story was much easier to track down the “true” events
because it was a much more popular haunting. The Harrisville haunting,
the basis of The Conjuring, was a bit more difficult as not
many people know about it yet. Hopefully this will give you guys an idea
as to what the true story behind The Conjuring really is.

What you’re about to read is all entirely from the accounts of Andrea
Perron. Like any story such as this, there’s a ton of skepticism
because it’s one of those things that we may never know to be true or
not. Read on, and take from it what you will, whether you believe in
these things or not it’s a fascinating story regardless and one that I
hope you guys will find interesting.

It had been a very long time before Andrea Perron told her account of
what happened to her and the rest of the family in the quiet town of
Harrisville, Rhode Island. She kept it all bottled up for three decades
until finally releasing her first published work, marking the first book
in a three-part series which tells the story of her family’s true
experiences while living in a farmhouse riddled with spirits in the
lonely Rhode Island countryside.

Although this particular haunting is very well-documented and
considered to be one of the most significant hauntings in history, it is
still very foreign to many people. The Warrens considered it their
“most intense, compelling, disturbing and significant investigation”.

Roger and Carolyn Perron finally purchased their dream home in the
winter months of 1970. Little did they know that this house was going to
be full of nightmares. As many people would, they were excited to be
living in a home full of history and were looking forward to raising
their five daughters there. What they didn’t know was that this house
was full of agony and death. Two former residents hung themselves — one
from the rafters of the barn.

The home was built on beautiful land with plenty of room for five
growing children to play. However, once they moved in the spirits began
to make their presence known.

Perron says, “My mom just wanted a place in the country to raise her kids”.

“It is an extraordinary place. We started seeing spirits as soon as
we moved into the house. Most of them were completely benign and some of
them didn’t even seem to notice we were there, but eight generations
lived and died in that house prior to our arrival and some of them never
left.”

At first many of them appeared to be harmless, like the ghost that
smelled of flowers and fruit, the one who would kiss the children
goodnight in their beds every night, or the spirit that constantly
picked up a broom to sweep the kitchen floor. Everything you would
expect from a haunted house seemed to have been happening to the family
as well, like things moving on their own and doors slamming shut, or
quiet whispers heard throughout the night. Probably the most frightening
thing was the sound of something that had the habit of slamming itself
into the front door of the house in the middle of the night, waking
everyone up. There were obviously some very disturbed spirits among the
family.

“We had one my sister called ‘Manny’. He was a sympathetic soul. We
think he was actually Johnny Arnold, who committed suicide in the eaves
of the house in the 1800s,” Perron said. “He would appear in the house
and watch over us. He always appeared in the same place, in the front
hallway between the dining room and the kitchen. The apparition would
always lean up against the door and would wear a crooked smile like he
was amused by the children. As soon as we saw him and made eye contact
he was gone.”

What is very interesting is that each member of the family actually
saw these spirits wandering throughout the home. They weren’t the only
ones though, because those who’ve lived in the house prior to and since
the Perron family saw them as well. “Everyone who has lived in the house
that we know of has experienced some type of supernatural phenomena,”
Perron said. “Some have left screaming and running for their lives. The
man who moved in to begin restoration on the house when we sold it left
screaming, without his car, without his tools, without his clothing. He
never went back to the house and consequently the people who owned it,
the adjacent landowners, moved in only briefly and it sat vacant for
years.”

Her descriptions of the numerous entities are vivid. Perron recalls
their features (or lack thereof) as especially haunting. At times, the
spirits would appear opaque, seemingly solid, and other times they were
translucent or in the form of mist and fog-like haze. She also claims
the spirits actually communicated with the members of the family but it
wasn’t through speaking out loud. She describes their discourse as being
“telepathic in nature”.

Perron said. “When they would appear it was as if all time stopped.
My sister Cindy described it like being “in the bubble”. The air is
suddenly compressed and we were unable to move or speak, prohibited from
doing anything except listening to what the spirit was trying to tell
us.”

James Wan’s The Conjuring is a motion picture based on the
haunting which occurred in the Perron home and persists to this day. It
is a story told from the perspective of Ed & Lorraine Warren, the
paranormal researchers who conducted an investigation of their farmhouse
in the early 1970′s. The screenplay is based on their case files as
well as information that Ms. Perron provided to the producers. The
Warrens did an investigation of the supernatural activity at the house
while the family lived there in an attempt to intervene on their behalf.
During a séance that goes terribly wrong, they awaken and call forth a
horrendous presence, one that Mrs. Warren believed to be Bathsheba,
described as a “God-forsaken soul”.

Bathsheba wanted control over Perron’s mother, Carolyn, and was
hell-bent and determined to drive her from the house, terrorizing her
because the spirit apparently perceived herself as the rightful mistress
of the house. She saw Carolyn as competition. She lusted after Roger
and coveted the five children, routinely acting out and making her
intentions obvious to all of the mortals in the house.Bathsheba
frightened Carolyn straight to her bones, tormenting her with fire, a
mother’s greatest fear. The spirit would approach her in the night and
is described as having a gruesome, misshapen face and a broken neck.
This thing was like looking at something straight out of your worst
nightmare.

According to legend and local folklore, Bathsheba was suspected of
being a practicing witch and was accused of sacrificing an infant child
as an offering to the devil. More than two dozen mysterious and tragic
deaths occurred on the property. Although she was absolved of any
wrongdoing in a courtroom, the court of public opinion was not so kind.
Bathsheba lived a miserable life and died an old woman in 1885 from a
bizarre form of paralysis which the physician who examined the corpse
found stunning and utterly inexplicable.

Early accounts of Bathsheba’s life before becoming this tortured soul
are said that she was a young and beautiful woman when an infant
mysteriously died in her care. When the baby was discovered, the mortal
wound was presumably caused by a needle which was impaled at the base of
its skull, which caused it to have convulsions and die. Bathsheba
denied these charges and ultimately walked free due to insufficient
evidence. Although Bathsheba may have walked free, these accusations
never left her as they haunted her for life. Perhaps this is why
Bathsheba wanted Perron’s mother out of the home and away from the
children so badly.

“What she put my mother through, no human being should ever have to
endure,” Perron claims. “She appeared to several of us, but I never saw
her. I saw many of the spirits, but I never saw her except in a
telepathic dream state. When she would appear to my mother, I would see
the encounter in a dream state at the same time it was occurring, though
I was rendered immobile and helpless to offer any assistance while she
was appearing to torment my mother.”

Perron’s description of Bathsheba is where things really start
getting creepy because she describes the sprit’s face as having almost
no real features. Instead, it looked like a lifeless beehive with vermin
crawling all over it. “Its head was leaning off to one side. It was
round and gray, resembling a dessicated hornet’s nest. I couldn’t see
anything underneath it… no eyes or mouth…it looked like the cobwebs
hanging in the corners of the cellar.” This, as described by her mother.

Despite having Ed and Lorraine Warren attempt to dispel the evil
spirits they ended up doing more harm then good and were never
successful in ridding the house of its horror. The family stayed in the
home for ten years before finally leaving — but the horrible things that
happened within those walls stayed with them forever.

Perron always knew there would be skeptics and I don’t blame her. Her
story isn’t the only one that has been subject to criticism over
whether it is true or not, which explains why she waited 30 years to
tell the world what really happened in that farmhouse. Obviously there
is so much more to this story than what I’ve covered here and quite
honestly, I have only scratched the surface. This article is only meant
to give you an idea as to where the story for James Wan’s The Conjuring
came from and to hopefully give you some insight as to what really
happened. What I’ve written here is really all I know on the events so
if you want to learn more I strongly urge you to read Perron’s book, House of Darkness House of Light: The True Story, because it gives a very in-depth and detailed look into this story.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The only question I have with the Perron case is, where are the videos?!?! Surely if this was recorded, there must be a video. Why not publicize the video and quiet all those skeptics? Obviously this is another hoax that the Perron's, Warren's(R.I.P. Ed), and Hollywood will feed off of until the public's interest runs dry.

Not even video can silence skeptics... you either believe it or you don't. Only people who have never experienced these things immediately cast doubt and negativity without any ounce of faith... if you believe in God and good then there must be an opposite in evil and darkness. There might be footage - but I'm sure the very people insisting on seeing video clips would find some explanation of it being faked... when these things happen its interesting that you would think they can just grab a camera... and being the 70's I wonder how easy it was to film it... not every family in the 70's had a film camera

Another scam...If there is anything in that house who would be brave enough to stay there for 10 long years..where even a single night is unbearable....how funny...very cheap marketing idea for selling books.....

How can Andrea Perron have the gall to sell this nonsense as `true' when the evidence speaks for itself? WHERE IS THE FOOTAGE AND OTHER RECORDINGS THAT WERE MADE BY THE WARRENS as indicated in the film?

Making silly excuses, such as the value of a video camera is just ridiculous. Any serious investigator MUST gather evidence, such as photographs, audio and video footage. The film "The Conjuring" clearly indicates that the Warrens did this, yet the obvious question has to be, "Where is it?"

By definition, the role of an "investigator" is to gather evidence, yet the Warrens have `never' produced a single shred of evidence and Andrea Perron is out to make a profit by marketing her deceitful book in conjunction with the movie.

During the 1970's I lived in a house in Faulconbridge, Australia that had a spirit/ghost/presence living there too. My young son often saw it and described it as a tall thin man, and they played together. My wife saw it and felt it and felt no fear of it. We did not report this, nor film it, nor do anything about it, except to accept it and live with it. 1970's was not now. In 1970 I had one cheap film camera and I counted the cost of film and its processing. If you experience this sort of thing you either accept it as a part of your life, or you move somewhere else.At least, that was our attitude and my guess is it was probably the attitude of the Warrens as well.

Open your eyes! Why is it there is never enough evidence supplied from stories like this so no question can be raised as to its validity? Extraordinary claims require hard evidence. There isn't any. Not a shred of evidence has been produced; no videos, no recordings; no pictures. Why not hand over any and all evidence the Warrens claimed to have collected to experts who can see whether such footage is fake? Not hard to figure that one out.